Oops, Finito!

Oops. I forgot to write something on this blog to make an official announcement yesterday. Maybe I didn’t do it because my last blog post sort of said so, but it’s done! I’m finished! The book I’ve been trying to write all this time is complete.

It was finished Wednesday, in fact. Earlier than my June 1st target. Then, Thursday and Friday, I slept better than I have in months! Now, I am starting to feel good.

I think.

What’s that like? Feeling “good.”

I feel accomplished.

It’s a huge accomplishment. It really is. I know a lot of people set out to write a book and never do, or think about it, and don’t. And I did it.

I suppose, yes, I do feel good about completing it. There’s something I’m holding back however. I just wish I was able to fit in all the great stories I have. I’ve had some unbelievable experiences. I’ve written them already too. I wanted to fit them in, but it wasn’t possible. I won’t be able to publish a book, at least not traditionally, that’s very long like that. It’s hard enough to break into the publishing world. To have the extra turn-off of that stupid word count concern would only make it worse. So, I needed to pare it down to solely my story, which in essence is the story I was supposed to tell anyway.

In my previous versions, I’d been going off into other people’s stories too much, taking the reader off track and away from me. I suppose I was doing that subconsciously on purpose. Heh. I secretly don’t think my story is all that interesting, but I’ll let the readers be the judge. I probably only think that because I lived it.

The other thing I had to get over was the consensus among (some) writers that memoir isn’t considered high literature. That really weighed on me the whole fucking time. I’m not some academic, but I’ve been writing since I was a little kid. Maybe I, at least have my own niche. We’ll see, but I got tired of caring about that. I “finished” with that too. Another accomplishment!

And I sure hope I have a niche, because there are about a billion other “misery memoirs” out there. What makes mine so special?

I tried not to make it one miserable tale after another. I think that’s clear as you read it, but what can I do? I can’t help how my life unfolded. Am I supposed to talk about unicorns and rainbows? Well…actually, I think both are mentioned.

The next step is finding an agent, or getting with a publisher directly would be even more awesome. I’m also looking for an attorney that wouldn’t mind helping me out for a low or no fee. Just to make sure I can put the manuscript out there, otherwise, I’d let my friends start reading it.